Many companies commonly sell products which although similar, or essentially identical, differ in appearance by virtue of their color, texture, or some other similar feature. In such cases, it is desirable that representative ones of the available product options be provided in the form of samples for inspection by prospective customers. Such products include, for example, paints, shingles, laminates, slatted blinds intended for window coverings, and a myriad of other goods too numerous to mention.
In many instances, as in the case of paints, for example, the colors are fastened as color squares or chips to pamphlets and brochures. Still other products are bound into product sheaves, for instance, carpet samples or wall coverings. Still other products are made available in the form of "decks" of samples, i.e., small, identical, representative portions of the product, differing only in their representation of the product variations available for purchase. These are strung in loops on beaded chains, or fastened together by means of rigid posts. Such decks are compact and facilitate side-by-side comparison of the available product options by purchasers. An additional advantage is that the product sample decks permit dealers to offer visual product inspection without the necessity of their carrying large and expensive inventories of the goods being offered for sale.
Product sample decks of the type described are relatively inexpensive on an individual basis; however, manufacturers must distribute the decks widely to maximize sales opportunities. They are also required to replace the decks relatively frequently, for example, due to loss, for reasons of style obsolescence, or as colors change; consequently, the overall sampling of the decks can involve considerable expense, notwithstanding their modest individual cost.
An additional problem with the product decks is that they must be manually assembled. Not only does this require considerable labor to accomplish, but it is not uncommon for incomplete decks to be assembled as the result of human error, made even more probable as a consequence of the tedium of the assembly task. With respect to defective product decks, when samples fail to be included in the decks due to errors of the type mentioned, prospective purchasers are frequently unaware of a purchase option represented by the missing sample exists. Therefore, the oversight can mean important lost sales opportunities for the manufacturer.
Furthermore, the need to prepare product sample decks is not a responsibility welcomed by most manufacturers of the products represented thereby since the deck assembly operation is a business cost, rather than a profit center, and is merely ancillary to a manufacturer's primary interest in making and selling the product represented by the samples.